_{Gazing... Unseeing by Mohamed Abdelkarim}

It is set in a futuristic world, in 2063, in the wake of a devastating flood 13 years before. As we see images of water and futuristic cityscapes, a voice-over tells a story of a man caught up in the chaos, as government ineptitude dashes the dreams of the people in the “Valley of the Greens” and brings humanity closer catastrophe.

Yes, the Egyptian and Dutch-based director acknowledges, La Jetée was an influence but, he adds, not so much on the ‘aesthetics’ of his film (he is more interested in landscape than Marker ever was) “but in the approach to narrative and in the melding of reality and fiction.”

The urban landscapes were shot in Cairo during the first lockdown in 2020. “It was a totally different atmosphere,“ the director says of the eerily empty city during this period, when cars and people suddenly vanished. “Most of the footage I took was from my balcony day and night, in different lockdown times. It was a very slow process of shooting.”

The imagery of the sea comes from Marseilles when Abdelkarim was working on a migration-based project in 2018. “But I am not thinking about [a specific] place. It [the film] is not about Egypt or Cairo… I am trying to think about global climate change.”

Gazing…Unseeing touches on many different themes. It is both sci-fi and a meditation on the dangers of climate change and environmental disaster. ‘Cli-fi’ is the phrase the director uses for his meshing of genres.

Much of Abdelkarim’s previous work has been shown in galleries as installations. The director has long had a foot in both the art world and the cinema world. “I am coming from a visual arts background,” he says. “It is about tools…some of my projects go close to cinematography and film narrative. Also, I am working with performance. And I am producing projects embedded in publication, narrative and texts.”

The artist/filmmaker currently lives in Maastricht in the Netherlands. “I have already spent 15 years moving in Europe. I lived in Zurich, Geneva, Barcelona and Prague.” Abdelkarim says of his movements. His wife is an artist and has also travelled for her work. “We ended up here and we liked it… and I had already had a connection to the arts scene in the Netherlands for a decade.”

What does he like about living with the Dutch? “First of all, I feel that the Netherlands is very diverse,” he reflects. The local people deal easily with the ‘other.’ “And there is a focus on art support and culture support from different sides… from the government, private institutions and museums. That is why the art scene [in the Netherlands] is very active. That is why I feel it is a good place for me.”

Not that he has broken his connections with Egypt. He used to teach at the American University in Cairo, and is still involved in the capital’s arts scene, organising art projects and pedagogical programmes.

Abdelkarim finds it enriching to live in two places and to look at subjects like climate change from the perspective of both the Dutch and the Egyptians. “They are different, of course,” he says but adds that the problems they face are often similar.

There is a third city that he also visits frequently, Vienna, where is doing his PhD at Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien. Throughout the Covid period, he has managed to keep on working and exhibiting, for example as part of a show such as ‘The convention of restorative anatomy and prosopopoeia’ at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin or in ‘Art as Connection group shows. He produces his work himself, generally funding it through art international grants.

For more information on the Berlinale, click here. Have a look at the full Berlinale and European Film Market selection here.